The Ministry of Culture and Sport celebrates International Museum Day 2023

On 18 May, the state museums of the Ministry of Culture and Sport will join in the celebrations for c 2023. Promoted by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 1977, this year's theme is 'Museums, Sustainability and Wellbeing'. The 19th edition of the European Night of Museums is also being held around this event, with state museums taking part with extraordinary activities on Saturday 13 May (Madrid, Santillana del Mar and Toledo) and Saturday 20 May (Cartagena, Valladolid, Mérida and Valencia).

International Museum Day: free visits

On 18 May, International Museum Day, admission to the 16 state museums of the Ministry of Culture and Sport will be free of charge. Throughout the week there will also be activities for all audiences, including workshops for adults, young people and children, concerts, guided tours, dramatised animation, conferences, performances and shows. This edition aims to highlight the contribution of museums to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, from their support for climate action and their promotion of inclusion to their combating social isolation and improving mental health.

European Night of Museums: night-time activities

On the European Night of Museums, state museums will open their doors free of charge for special evening opening hours. On Saturday 13 May, the Neocave of the Altamira Museum will be shown in its original light, using bone marrow lamps, as it was seen by the people who lived there thousands of years ago; and in Toledo, the El Greco Museum will be putting on a workshop to promote wellbeing in its garden, and the Sephardic Museum will be hosting a concert of contemporary Sephardic music.

In Madrid, the Costume Museum. CIPE will be draping itself in zarzuela and organising themed visits to its warehouse, among other activities; the National Museum of Anthropology will be organising a concert by Boudanga, a gnawa music group, which has had a long tradition in Morocco since the 16th century; and the Cerralbo Museum and the Museum of Romanticism will be taking visitors back in time to the 19th century.

On Saturday 20 May, the National Sculpture Museum in Valladolid, the National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts 'González Martí' in Valencia and the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida will be joining in the celebrations with extraordinary openings. For its part, the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology ARQVA in Cartagena has prepared workshops and activities for children, and a night-time 'escape room' for adults.

International Museum Day and the European Night of Museums are presented as two proposals for special activities aimed at enjoying and learning more about the cultural heritage housed in these institutions. Information on the activities and the conditions of access to each of them is available on the state museums website.

The network of state museums, managed by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, includes:

• Cartagena (Murcia)
  

The National Museum of Underwater Archaeology ARQVA

• Madrid

The National Archaeological Museum

The Costume Museum. the Ethnological Heritage Research Centre

Sorolla Museum

Cerralbo Museum

The National Museum of Decorative Arts

The National Museum of Romanticism

The Museum of America National Museum of Anthropology

• Mérida (Extremadura)

The National Museum of Roman Art

• Santillana del Mar (Cantabria):

The Altamira National Museum and Research Centre

• Toledo (Castilla-La Mancha)

The El Greco Museum

The Sephardic Museum

• Valencia

The National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts 'González Martí'.

• Valladolid (Castilla y León)

The National Sculpture Museum

Cervantes House Museum

Non official translation